“An indiscriminate distrust of human nature is the worst consequence of a miserable condition, whether brought about by innocence or guilt. And though want of suspicion more than want of sense, sometimes leads a man into harm; yet too much suspicion is as bad as too little sense.”
Quote by Herman Melville
“A hermitage in the forest is the refuge of the narrow-minded misanthrope; a hammock on the ocean is the asylum for the generous distressed.”
Source: Israel Potter: his fifty years of exile
“Great towers take time to construct.”
Source: Mardi: and A Voyage Thither: Works of Melville
“If you begin the day with a laugh, you may, nevertheless, end it with a sob and a sigh.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)
“Whenever we discover a dislike in us, toward any one, we should ever be a little suspicious of ourselves.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)
“Let us waive that agitated national topic, as to whether such multitudes of foreign poor should be landed on our American shores;let us waive it, with the one only thought, that if they can get here, they have God's right to come.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)
“God is liberal of color; so should man be.”
Source: Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition
“I am sorry to say we whites have a sad reputation among many of the Polynesians. The natives of these islands are naturally of a kindly and hospitable temper, but there has been implanted among them an almost instinctive hate of the white man. They esteem us, with rare exceptions, such as some of the missionaries, the most barbarous, treacherous, irreligious, and devilish creatures on the earth.”
Source: Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition
“That hour in the life of a man when first the help of humanity fails him, and he learns that in his obscurity and indigence humanity holds him a dog and no man: that hour is a hard one, but not the hardest. There is still another hour which follows, when he learns that in his infinite comparative minuteness and abjectness, the gods do likewise despise him, and own him not of their clan.”
Source: Pierre: Or, the Ambiguities
“Nobody is so heartily despised as a pusillanimous, lazy, good-for-nothing, land-lubber; a sailor has no bowels of compassion for him.”
Source: Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, During a Four Months' Residence in the Valley of the Marquesas
“Is it possible, after all, that spite of bricks and shaven faces, this world we live in is brimmed with wonders, and I and all mankind, beneath our garbs of common-placeness, conceal enigmas that the stars themselves, and perhaps the highest seraphim can not resolve?”
Source: Pierre; or The Ambiguities